High school sports roundup: Butler’s Brendan Eicher sets McDowell Invite record; Slippery Rock football gets 1st win
Butler’s boys won the 51st McDowell Cross Country Invitational in Erie on Saturday, with Brendan Eicher setting a course record of 15:45.8 in a first-place finish. The Tornado girls came in second.
Eicher broke then-McDowell senior Kamden Kramer’s time of 15:53.6, set a year ago.
Logan Rogers (16:19) and Ethan Thomas (16:24) finished second and third, respectively, for the Tornado boys, leading an impressive 14-point effort. They had five runners in the top 15.
On the girls’ side, sophomore Zari Golojuh led the effort with a fifth-place finish in 20:09. Butler also had five in the top 15, with Macie McLister (20:30) coming in seventh and Avery Sintz (21:03) finishing 10th.
Quarterback Doug Popevec ran for a touchdown and returned an interception to the end zone, and running back Kole Scott scored twice from 22 and 4 yards out in Slippery Rock’s 26-7 win Saturday night over Franklin.
Scott scored both of his TDs in the second half and finished with 111 yards on 14 carries.
Popovec, a converted receiver, was 6 of 11 for 72 yards and an INT passing and ran 10 times for 40 yards. The Rockets (1-1) forced four turnovers.
Ryan Sutara recorded a hat trick in Freeport’s 11-0 win Saturday over Leechburg. Sutara also added two assists.
Carson Rowley and Nate Watson each scored twice, and TJ Clark and Spencer Valasek each had two assists in the victory.
Four girls — Malina McElroy, Cecelia Wolford, Kara Lubinsky and Callie McKindley —found the back of the net in Butler’s 4-0 win over Mercyhurst Prep over the weekend.
